Events

Dear Sir or Madam

The banks of the River Rhine at Cologne's Hohenzollern Bridge are the scene of an important invention. Its worldwide impact radiates not only into our present, but far into the future. It is about RADAR. On 17 May 1904, the entrepreneur and inventor Christian Hülsmeyer (1881-1957) demonstrated the RADAR principle there for the first time in the history of technology. His invention, called “telemobiloscope" by him, emitted "Hertzian waves". As soon as Rhine ships approached, they reflected the waves. Hülsmeyer's telemobiloscope received the reflections, a bell sounded and the direction from which the ship came was indicated.

It is undisputed in the international engineering world that radar was born on 17 May 1904 in Cologne. If one considers that Heinrich Hertz (1857-1894), the discoverer of electromagnetic waves, worked as a professor of physics in nearby Bonn, it becomes clear that today's future technology RADAR is a thoroughly Rhenish invention. Shortly before his death in 1957, Hülsmeyer was honored by his inventor colleague Konrad Adenauer, then Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, but previously the great Lord Mayor of Cologne. In the post-war period, this tribute would also be a piece of German-British history of reconciliation.

Cologne's Lord Mayor Henriette Reker cordially invites you and is delighted,

on 19 October 2019, at 15 o'clock

to commemorate this important event in the history of international technology with you at a ceremony in the historic Cologne City Hall. The ceremony will be followed by the inauguration of a commemorative plaque on the banks of the River Rhine in Cologne, a historic milestone of the international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE. After a thorough examination, only a few places on earth receive this very special honour. Afterward, the company HENSOLDT, which today transforms Hülsmeyer's invention into high-tech, then invites you to a reception at the Hotel Hyatt Regency in Cologne. The detailed program can be found below.

We kindly ask to register via our online registration form by 10 October 2019.

Yours sincerely

Henriette Reker
Lord Mayor of the City of Cologne

Prof. Dr. Peter Knott
Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques FHR

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Koch
Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE

Thomas Mueller, CEO
Hensoldt Holding GmbH